I'll forever be thankful for Rise and Sunbreak for restoring my faith in this series.
I was honestly preferring Rise more by the time I finished Sunbreaks base story for a couple of reasons.
While Sunbreak's monster roster is a very good selection of some of my fave past monsters, on top of their really great transition into gen5, I was honestly feeling like the game was a bit thematically confused and just threw in a bunch of monsters into a big pot unlike Rise which had a very solid theme that it masterfully integrated everything together into. While we do have the entire european abominations and aesthetic with the Three Lords and Citadel thing going on, everything else besides Gore/Shagaru felt like it didn't fit into that at all, along with Jungle being back for what really felt like no reason to me. I thought the OST was also not as good as Rise was, which is an insanely high bar to clear tbh, but there's still some god tier tracks like the Elgado Outpost's main theme.
With those said though, the game follows up and expands on base Rise really really well with the updates to the Master rank versions of the monsters, the new switch skills, and especially introducing an infinite end game grind, a first for a portable team game btw, which is really enjoyable to grind with the customization it opens up to the players.
What really sold me though into making this my fave MH ever now is how insanely well they delivered with bringing Amatsu to the game. Honestly sent me to tears with how godlike all the callbacks and fanservice to P3rd fans are which just made me feel like all these years of me playing the hell out of this franchise feel like it's recognized and rewarded. But even besides that, the game has a ton to offer on top of Rise with a very good story and cast of characters to interact and hunt with God Eater style, which I thought was honestly cool that they're finally starting to take notes from including being able to trade currency for monster materials to alleviate grinding. Would love to see this again in future titles honestly.
I honestly can't say that I'm excited for the next game which will be by the console team again but at least I know I'll be waiting very very patiently for the title after that by the portable team knowing that they'll probably blow my mind again and remind me why Monster Hunter is one of my favorite franchises ever.
I was honestly preferring Rise more by the time I finished Sunbreaks base story for a couple of reasons.
While Sunbreak's monster roster is a very good selection of some of my fave past monsters, on top of their really great transition into gen5, I was honestly feeling like the game was a bit thematically confused and just threw in a bunch of monsters into a big pot unlike Rise which had a very solid theme that it masterfully integrated everything together into. While we do have the entire european abominations and aesthetic with the Three Lords and Citadel thing going on, everything else besides Gore/Shagaru felt like it didn't fit into that at all, along with Jungle being back for what really felt like no reason to me. I thought the OST was also not as good as Rise was, which is an insanely high bar to clear tbh, but there's still some god tier tracks like the Elgado Outpost's main theme.
With those said though, the game follows up and expands on base Rise really really well with the updates to the Master rank versions of the monsters, the new switch skills, and especially introducing an infinite end game grind, a first for a portable team game btw, which is really enjoyable to grind with the customization it opens up to the players.
What really sold me though into making this my fave MH ever now is how insanely well they delivered with bringing Amatsu to the game. Honestly sent me to tears with how godlike all the callbacks and fanservice to P3rd fans are which just made me feel like all these years of me playing the hell out of this franchise feel like it's recognized and rewarded. But even besides that, the game has a ton to offer on top of Rise with a very good story and cast of characters to interact and hunt with God Eater style, which I thought was honestly cool that they're finally starting to take notes from including being able to trade currency for monster materials to alleviate grinding. Would love to see this again in future titles honestly.
I honestly can't say that I'm excited for the next game which will be by the console team again but at least I know I'll be waiting very very patiently for the title after that by the portable team knowing that they'll probably blow my mind again and remind me why Monster Hunter is one of my favorite franchises ever.